Benjamin Carlson

@bfcarlson • 64,338 subscribers

Ex-editor @TheAtlantic, ex-China journo @AFP. Comms director. Writing is an act of freedom.

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Benjamin Carlson

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How do you incubate a mind virus? How do you cause a culture to self-destruct? In 1984, this KGB defector exposed the 4-stages identified by Soviet intelligence as the necessary steps to cause the psychological implosion of American society. Stage 1: Demoralization (15–20 yrs)

Think about what’s being done to your dopamine levels on a daily basis and then watch this. In 1958, Aldous Huxley predicted a form of dictatorship that would rely not on force, but propaganda—and addiction.

The feud between Susan Sontag and Camille Paglia captured on camera here in 1993 (on public TV) is so painfully entertaining it's impossible to look away.

In 1977, Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most influential 20th c. Spanish-language writers, told William F. Buckley (whose first language was Spanish) his reasons for feeling, age 78, that English was 'far finer' than his native tongue. Right or wrong, I love his savor for language

In 1977, media prophet Marshall McLuhan discussed CIA and FBI surveillance, and then turned it into one of the most mind-bending riffs on identity in the digital age I've ever heard.

In 1974, author Ray Bradbury was asked, “What is space travel going to do for man?” In response, he gave the most mystical, mind-blowing, and strangely moving answer I could have imagined.

Your two minutes of inspiration of the day

Love or hate her, Ayn Rand was a piercing voice on moral questions that continue to haunt the 21st century. Watch this 1959 clip with Mike Wallace and ask yourself: was she wrong?

Nobody hated clichés as intensely, and as thoughtfully, as Martin Amis. I particularly like his attack on the trendy catchphrases of 2007. That all of them now sound utterly dead makes his point.

In the last interview of his life (1996), astronomer Carl Sagan gave an uncannily prescient warning of the dangers that arise when you cannot ask skeptical scientific questions of those in authority. Watch and ask yourself: was he right?

How to handle a bank run, a guide. Fascinating tactics from an owner who halted a run on his bank exploiting shrewd intuitions about human psychology.

Philip K. Dick, scifi visionary, died 41 years ago in a state of ruin. But his predictions of AI, predictive policing, and virtual reality have come uncannily true. In 1977, Dick reflects on his surprising emotion upon discovering he was being harassed by the FBI and CIA.

I can't get over how prophetic this man was. Here's Marshall McLuhan over half a century ago (1966) predicting the world we live in decades before anyone had imagined it.

In 1958, psychoanalyst and philosopher Eric Fromm was asked why he believed the United States of 1958 was the best society the world had ever seen. He explains why—and gives a warning for how the US could destroy itself. See if you agree with him on the fatal flaw of modern work

Eisenhower's famous farewell address not only coined the term "military industrial complex." He also warned of the dangers to liberties and democracy that come when government and massive corporations form a single bloc with "unwarranted influence" and malign power over society.

In 1958, legendary interviewer Mike Wallace asked America's most influential theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr: "What is your personal attitude toward atheists?" His answer is both surprising and thought-provoking, whatever your belief.

I can't stop watching this moment in 1967 when Marshall McLuhan uncannily predicted exactly what it's like living in a world of social media

Kurt Vonnegut's theory of story shapes theory is the most delightful rejected master's thesis I know. All the great tales of the world can be graphed, he says, revealing the inner life of a society. Watch, enjoy, and consider what shape the stories of 2023 might make.

Will Durant, philosopher and historian, gives a delightfully tart lesson to a glib reporter, and then gives an aquatic analogy on our human limits that is surprisingly profound.

In 1984, KGB defector Bezmenov warned the demoralization of the US was nearly complete After the final crisis, all those who helped in subversion will have no further use, he adds. “They will be lined up against the wall and shot.”